Mr. Speaker, before I give my statement, I would like to welcome to Ottawa the great students and chaperones from Upper Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia who are here on a fact-finding mission. We congratulate them.
I would like to draw to the attention of the House and the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans the tragic decision he has made in terms of allowing draggers into a very sensitive fishing area off what is called the Cape Breton or Sydney bight near the gulf in Nova Scotia. To lift the moratorium and to allow draggers in that sensitive fishing area is an unmitigated disaster with unconscionable results.
Also, come April 1, the minister will have to make a decision about the hook and line fishery off 3Ps. Officials say we do not have the scientific evidence that these stocks are one and the same but by cutting the science budget so much, they do not have the evidence or they have to operate on a precautionary principle.
I advise the minister to stop that terrible way of fishing off the Sydney bight, as we speak, and allow the hook and line fishery to continue on in the spring season.